MackenvsmannenWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Macken is a noun, mannen is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Macken” is a noun and “mannen” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,672
“Macken” frequency rank
#34,797
“mannen” frequency rank
66469
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Macken mannen
Definition Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Macke etwas von Mann zu Mann reichen

Where the eye mixes Macken and mannen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. Macken and mannen follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
Macken
6 ch
mannen

Visual trap between Macken and mannen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Macken is [ˈmakn̩] while mannen is [ˈmanən]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Macken is recorded at frequency rank #31,672, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmakn̩]. mannen is at rank #34,797, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmanən].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 66469, this pair ranks #572,161 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Macken vs mannen

Shared letters: aemn. Private to "Macken": ck. Private to "mannen": -.

"Macken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mannen" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Macken ← amcken · maccken · macekn · mackenn · mackken · mackne · makcen · mcaken
  • mannen ← amnnen · manen · manenn · mannenn · mannne · mmannen · mnanen

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Macken" and "mannen" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Macken" is a noun and "mannen" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Macken" vs "mannen" - which ranks higher?
"Macken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,672 in our German list, against #34,797 for "mannen". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "Macken" and "mannen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Macken" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mannen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #572,161 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Macken" and "mannen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mailen vs mannen". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #572,161 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list